Saturday, February 23, 2008

News from Lon on recent acheivements

...this from Lon. I hope he doesn't mind, but I'm just forwarding it because it says it all and let's face it...I'm too lazy right now to put it in my own words!!

Happy writing!
Kaye

Here it is:

- Artist Scott Waddell ( www.scottwaddellfinearts.com ) touched base with me this weekend with exciting news about the painting he cast me as a whaler in. It is featured this month on the inside back cover advertisement of American Art Collector. Cavalier Galleries ( www.cavaliergalleries,com ) of Greenwich, CT have the painting as a part of their current show. The lady working there recognized me from the painting after a brief double take, and graciously allowed Shelley to take some pictures. From all reports, the painting is being very well received by the gallery's patrons. If I had 14 large, I'd pick it up myself, but for now I'm going to have to settle for a snapshot. See the attached file, if you're interested.

- I met my short story idol Howard Waldrop this weekend at Boskone; he's a soft-spoken living legend in short weird stories. He is writing the introduction to my friend (and collaborator) Josh Rountree's collection Can't Buy Me Faded Love which comes out in May from Wheatland Press ( www.wheatlandpress.com ), and you will hear more about that amazing book, I guarantee.

- FREE (which most of you know is my favorite four letter word) FICTION: None from me this time around, but check out cool stuff going on THROUGH THE END OF FEBRUARY at Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show ( http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/cgi-bin/mag.cgi?do=content&article=free_stories ) They are giving away four free stories from their web magazine so those on the fence about subscribing can see what all the fuss is about. Of particular interest, See "Tabloid Reporter to the Stars" by my friend and Writers of the Future buddy Eric James Stone and "Trill and the Beanstalk" by Edmund Schubert. Also from the FREE file: Sign up for Tor Books' newsletter ( http://www.tor-forge.com/NewsLetter.aspx ) and receive some free ebooks of cool novels like Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson and Old Man's War by John Scalzi.

- My poem "Goodwill" appeared this month in CHOPPER 2, a local poetry journal. They sold out fast, but I was able to snag a copy before they did. Anyone interested in the second printing should give a shout to Helen at chopperjournal@gmail.com to find out details. I also recently sold a poem to the webzine Goblin Fruit ( http://www.goblinfruit.net ) for their Summer 2008 issue.

- On the fiction front, Frontier Cthulhu ( http://www.amazon.com/Frontier-Cthulhu-Ancient-Horrors-Fiction/dp/1568822197 )is on the streets and has even been sighted in some big chain bookstores. The only review I've seen on the book so far is the Amazon reader review at the link above; it's a quite positive review from someone who is apparently a huge fan of all things Lovecraftian. Also, I sold what I think is one of my most poignant stories to Talebones! ( www.talebones.com ) Look for an email from me in the fall for information on how to get a copy for yourself.

- That's enough for now, thanks for reading!

Lon


PS Check out the up-to-the-minute updates on my writing at the recently revamped www.lonprater.com

Pencils! Points: February 19, 2008

Well, AT LAST! We weren't cancelled out! But, the wait was worth it. Even though this wasn't a normally scheduled meeting time, we still had ten people in attendance and were able to allot twenty minutes of time to each presenter—not too shabby! That said, on with the show:

Announcements

~ The "Oh! Sweet Rejection!" Burning Slip Dessert Party is still on track for February 23 (that's today, folks!) at 7:30 p.m. Despite yesterday's dumping, the roads and all should be fine tomorrow night. If we decide to change our minds, however, you will all be notified by e-mail and by any phone numbers that we have on file. As of right now, though, we're sure that we're going to go ahead with it.

What to bring: a dessert to share, something to drink…and rejection slips! No worries, if you don't have one, come anyway. Moral support is always an upper!

~ Pencils! new "Pre-text" program: is not yet up and running. Jerry is in charge (he'll basically be setting us up with a submission system and do all the disseminating of the stories, as well as scheduling which stories will be discussed at which meeting and who has read what so far) and we're also going to change the name. We'll keep you posted, so stay-tuned.

~ Believe it or not, THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY PARTY is…well, not too far away. While it may be hard to think of summer partying in this dreary crap, Maryanne and Kaye have already got some really exciting plans in place. Based on the feedback we got from the Pencils! survey, we know that everyone likes that particular party the way it is—so we're just going to one-up it a bit. Stay tuned for more information.

~ Even though we are coming to the end of winter, PLEASE BE SURE I HAVE YOUR UPDATED PHONE NUMBERS. A few I have don't work.

Meeting Update…

Here we go, folks!

1. Yvonne kicked off our first meeting of 2008 by reading a portion of her novel (for which I don't have a title): "After a brief tour of R&D, Melanie thanked them and left. As she walked towards her car, she thought that it sounded like an excellent opportunity, with good experience and a substantial salary hike. Suddenly, a premonition that she could not name came over her and chills ran down her spine."

2. Joyce was up next with more of Venus Ascending (refresher: the novel about Estelle. When we last left her, she was partying it up on New Year's Eve with a potential new beau). "Joe hobbled in late in the day carrying a carton of coffee containers, jelly doughnuts and box of aluminum foil. His eyes had a ruby cast, and he looked exhausted, but his voice sounded cheery. "Here's the one-man snack and cleanup squad." He put the carton on the floor, and winced as he stood up."

3. Shirley presented the first part of a NEW short story, "The Little Pink House": "The only pink house with a pink garage and a pink mailbox on Salteri Road belonged to Jenny and Gio./Jennie fastened her seat belt and uttered a sigh. "Gee, I hope Susie isn't too mad at us when she finds out we're gone. We did promise her we'd wait awhile."

4. Dave put us on a planet full of vampires with – well, an excerpt from Planet of Vampires: "It was that odd mix of fascination and contempt that only a warrior who has dehumanized an enemy for years and years of waiting for attacks in hot stinking trenches and cold silent-running assault vessels could fully contain."

5. Kaye took us to the Magic Kingdom with an excerpt from her short story "It's a Small World", which is part of her master's thesis: "There could be no denying that twelve-year-old Kevin Shagumbria was a brat…he demanded his laundry be done every Wednesday, refused to eat the food that was made for him, and regularly walked past adults who were smoking and told them how disagreeable their habits were."

6. And last but not least, Jerry showed us a little bit of what his new novel Omniscience is like: "He had known it would take time to get his life back together after the accident. He went through the first four stages of grief quickly. Denial ended the day he got the news, when he identified her body. Anger subsided quickly because there was no one to be angry at. And what little faith he'd had was shattered by Jenni's senseless death, so the bargaining stage was the shortest of all."

Quotes of the Night

"Yeah, and I know no disclaimers, but…"

-- Shirley

~~

Dave: Or I thought maybe the Devil was going to show up—

Yvonne: The Devil does show up; wait until you read the rest of the story.

~~

Monday, February 18, 2008

Nick's new film is out

Nick loves to write, but he still loves the camera. Here's his latest music vid on youtube. Don't miss it...it's got lots of really great symbolism and imagery!

Here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zzH0u_hrE0

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Walt hits home with "Face in the Tree"

Walt's done it again...his story "Face in the Tree" is published at Southern Fried Weirdness Online! Check it out at

http://www.southernfriedweirdness.blogspot.com/.


Congratulations, Walt!